Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 was confused and wary. Cortana had just woken him up from cryo-sleep because the Forward Unto Dawn appeared to be in the process of being boarded. He'd grabbed Cortana and a weapon and begun trying to find out what was going on when a… portal of darkness streaked with color appeared in front of them. Out of the portal stumbled what appeared to be four humans, three of them adolescents (though one had an odd green pigmentation to his skin). He had immediately aimed his rifle at the last one to stumble out of the portal, who looked up and froze at the sight of the barrel of his MA5D Assault Rifle inches from his emerald green eye.
"Identify yourself. Who are you, and how did you get on this ship?" Chief growled threateningly. The Dawn was stranded in the middle of space, there should have been no way for any humans to arrive on it unless they were military personnel from a UNSC ship, something these four obviously weren't, if their attire was any indication. Not to mention that the Chief had never seen any tech that created portals like the one they'd come through.
The teenager stared up at him, letting Chief study him. He had odd tattoos on his relatively pale face, black lines that formed patterns and disappeared under his shirt. Then he let his head drop to the metal flooring with a thump even as he let go of the ancient looking spear in his hand. "…Goddammit…"
Chief tilted his head to the side. "Cortana, any ideas?"
"For once, Chief, no, I don't." The AI said, sounding puzzled. "The energy reading from that portal doesn't match anything in my database, and these obviously aren't UNSC or Covenant troops, even if they are armed. That's another thing, the weapons I'm seeing on this boy and the woman are positively ancient. They went out of style in the mid twenty first century. Why would attackers use weapons that wouldn't even make your shields notice? That's not even mentioning the lance, which looks more ceremonial than anything else."
Chief made a sound of agreement. None of the new arrivals appeared to be a threat to him. Still, their arrival was too coincidental. Especially when…
His thoughts were interrupted when the entire ship shook, an orange light passing through it with a disquieting noise. The green boy (which was pretty odd. Some sort of aesthetic paint?) sat up, looking around. "The hell was that?" He asked, slowly getting up. Chief tightened his grip on his rifle, but didn't do anything else.
"I don't know, Garfield." The girl with lone black hair said as she got up as well, eyeing him warily as he noted the name she'd provided. "Harry, where did your portal bring us?"
Chief turned back to the tattooed boy upon hearing the portal was his work. He was very interested in the answer.
"I… I have no clue." The boy said, sitting up while eyeing Chief warily. "I had set it to take us home, but then the lance got shot by those Trinity agents, and it appears to have, uh, redirected us."
"You can get us back though, right?" The last one, the oldest, asked anxiously as she got up, clutching her primitive assault rifle tightly and eyeing him just as warily as they others did.
'Harry' picked up the lance and stood up slowly, obviously trying to keep Chief from firing due to any sudden movements. "I'm not sure. I believe so, but…" The ship shook again and they all stopped talking or moving, looking around.
"Chief, the scans are becoming more frequent. I know this is fascinating and all, but I think the first priority is to determine what's going on with the ship. Once that's dealt with we can interrogate our new friends at length." Cortana chimed in.
"Agreed." Then he spoke so that his guests could hear him. "Alright, I don't know what's going on with you, but I need to deal with the ship first. Stay here. I can't protect you if you come with me." Done with his warning he moved passed the group, his rifle at the ready.
He'd made it to the end of the hallway before he heard footsteps behind him. He turned to find the group following him, the eldest having picked up another MA5D, adjusting her grip on it before looking up at him. The tattooed boy had an old revolver style pistol in his hand, the lance nowhere to be seen. The other two looked unarmed, and none of them wore any sort of armor.
He stared silently before speaking. "No."
The green boy, Garfield, shook his head. "Sorry dude, but we're better off coming with you and helping you than staying here. At least if we're with you we'll know what's going on rather than being here and unaware if something catastrophic is happening." He grinned, exposing longer and sharper than normal canines. "And we may not look like much now, but we can hold our own in a fight."
The Chief studied the group, but another blast of orange light cut that short. "…Fine."
"Chief?" Cortana asked, surprised.
"They've got a point about needing to be aware, and more fighters can't hurt. Besides, we don't have time to argue." He turned and resumed moving. "We're headed to the observation deck to figure out what's going." The others followed him.
Eventually the group reached the elevators. Cortana then spoke up, audible to everybody for the first time. "Chief, looks like the elevators are sealed tight."
The black haired girl looked around, curiously. "Who was that?"
"Cortana." Chief answered curtly as he slipped his fingers between the elevator doors and started prying them open with his enhanced strength.
"Wait, Chief!" Cortana called, but too late, as once the doors opened the air began rushing into the shaft, the group behind him crying out as they tried to keep from being blown away, a large box not being as lucky and flying over to slam into the Chief, launching him into the elevator shaft. He grabbed onto a rung of a ladder in the shaft, keeping himself from being forced further. "Some areas might have lost pressure…" Cortana finished, her voice exasperated.
"Noted." Chief said before turning to see how the others were faring now that they were in a lower pressure environment. He blinked in surprise as he saw that they were no worse for wear despite definitely not being in vacuum sealed suits. When he looked closely he saw that they had an odd sort of energy field, noticeable because of how it darkened them to his sight, like a dark film had been overlaid over them.
"What the… Is that some sort of energy shield? Where the hell did that come from." Cortana asked, puzzled. Chief just shook his head, putting it out of his mind for the moment, and began climbing the elevator shaft.
There were some close calls as the damaged ship began to fall apart, raining debris on them which was mysteriously redirected away by some invisible force, but Chief made it to the next floor and climbed out of the shaft. When he looked up he was surprised to see an Elite stalk out of the smoke caused by the minor fires, activating an energy sword and raising it to slice into him. Chief quickly grabbed the alien's arm, stopping the blade, then punched it before snapping its neck, letting it fall down the elevator shaft.
Garfield, the first one out of the shaft (which was odd, as Chief was sure he had been the third one climbing up) burst out. "What the hell was that?"
Chief ignored him, though he did note it was odd that the boy didn't know what an Elite was after decades of war, and focused on Cortana. "I thought we had a truce with the Covenant." He said.
"A lot can happen in four years." She said with an audible shrug. "But you can bet he's not alone."
Chief nodded and made his way forward more carefully now as the last of the others climbed out of the shaft.
Slowly the group moved towards the observation deck, their footsteps ringing out on the metal deck. Chief stopped when something changed, however. He experimentally took a step forward, but didn't hear a sound. It wasn't like when he was in a null atmosphere. Even then he could hear the sounds through his armor. There was simply… nothing.
He turned to stare at the four behind him, Harry smirking at him and motioning for him to keep moving, his revolver in his right hand. Chief stared for a moment longer before doing so, turning to continue.
They reached the observation deck to find Covenant troops wandering the area, the blast shields down and hiding the view of the outside. Chief went up to the observation controls, finding an Elite standing with its back to him, focusing on the controls. He quickly attacked it before it could react, killing it with quick, economical motions.
Unfortunately, one of the grunts below had noticed and cried out a warning, pointing up at him. The group quickly took cover as plasma started flying. Chief prepared himself to fight while protecting the other humans with him.
Before he could, however, the woman leaned out of cover, firing the rifle with the accuracy one would expect of an experienced marine. One of the grunts, who was prepping a plasma grenade, screamed in shock as it died, dropping the grenade which went off, killing another two grunts.
Harry leaned out and aimed his revolver, the firearm barking twice, taking the top of a grunt's head off. The most shocking even, however, was Garfield jumping out of cover and down on a group of grunts, his form shifting into that of a green tiger midway down. The grunts screamed in fright and tried to run away, but the tiger was merciless, pouncing on them and savaging them with fangs and claws.
"…What the hell did I just see?" Cortana asked incredulously.
Chief didn't respond, automatically returning fire at a grunt that had shot at him while he was looking elsewhere, taking his shields down by half. He chided himself for getting distracted and mopped up the last couple of grunts he could see.
He heard the sound of an enemy moving up the steps behind him and turned, ready to fire, only to stop when the black haired girl made what looked to be an enormous marble hobby horse appear in her hands, bringing it down on the hapless grunt, who screamed before being crushed.
The deck went silent before Cortana spoke 'out loud'. "That's the last of them. Now, override the blast shield so we can see what we're up against."
Chief quickly made his way to the control panel and pressed the required controls to remove the blast shield, turning to see what was going on. Harry stepped beside him, eyes fixed on the opening shield.
As the shield slowly rose, Cortana continued speaking. "The good news is that these Covenant aren't outfitted like standard military. It's possible we just came across a rogue salvage ship."
As the shield rose completely Chief and the rest of the group stared.
"Or not…" Garfield said nervously as he saw the multitude of ships surrounding what appeared to be a large planet.
"We… might have stumbled on an entire Covenant fleet…" Cortana said slowly.
Beside him, Harry sighed wearily. "This is going to be one of those days, isn't it…?
Lara wasn't showing it, but she was close to having a nervous breakdown. She was far, far away from home, with the method of returning uncertain, and now she was in space fighting aliens.
As she watched the breathtaking view out the viewing window, she couldn't help but feel slightly terrified. She'd promised Sam she'd come back, and now she was in space. She gripped her new rifle tightly, hands sweaty with worry. Then Alice's slim hand rested on one of hers. Lara turned to look at the girl questioningly.
"It'll be alright, Lara." Alice said softly. "We'll get you back home to Sam. There's nothing to worry about."
Lara almost began laughing hysterically. "Nothing to worry about? Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Alice smiled gently. "I trust in our friends. They'll get us out of this. We'll just need to support them till they can do so." She said, her calm demeanor helping Lara settle down.
"How are you so calm right now? We're in space!" She asked incredulously.
Alice shrugged. "I have seen much odder things, Lara."
"Ladies, focus!" Harry said, making them look to see that two ships were landing on either side of the observation deck, disgorging troops. Immediately the girls got ready to fight.
A wave of grunts and elites came from the tubes connected to the troop transports, and the group immediately began to fight.
Lara focused on moving and shooting, treating this like any other firefight she'd been through… even if it was against aliens.
Beast Boy was a constant diversion, switching forms quickly, evading fire by becoming something innocuous before transforming into something to attack with, then shifting back, keeping the enemies disoriented as he took them out.
Harry fired piercing shots from his revolver, but with his free hand he was casting spells, spikes of metal shooting out of the ground to pierce his enemies. The area he was focusing on looked like a tribute to Vlad the Impaler.
As usual, Alice was fighting defensively. She had her parasol at the ready, which thankfully appeared capable of deflecting the energy shots the aliens were launching at them. Whenever they got in close she'd smash them with her hobby horse, breaking their bodies with surprising strength for her delicate seeming form.
The man they'd thrown their lot in with, the 'Chief', was fighting like an experienced soldier. Nothing seemed to be able to escape his focus, and even when he was hit nothing seemed to happen, what appeared to be an energy shield protecting him.
Before long all the enemies had been eliminated. "We need to get off this ship." The Chief said as he reloaded his weapon.
"We've got bigger problems!" The voice of the woman, Cortana, that came through his armor's speakers said. The ship shook as she continued. "We've got a cruiser on an intercept course! Head for the elevator banks."
As the Chief did as told and made his way back the way they came Lara glanced at her friends. Harry nodded and followed after the armored man, the others quickly doing the same.
"Didn't the ship's sensors say we still had weapon systems online?" The Chief asked Cortana as he walked into a still functioning elevator, the others following him in.
"Yes, but since the ship was torn in half we can't access the weapons stations." She responded as the elevator made its way up. "We'll have to fire them manually from the outer hull."
After quite a bit of walking and a lot of fighting they finally reached the airlocks. While the soldier wasn't looking Harry waved his hand over them, reinforcing… whatever It was he'd done to protect them from vacuum. The Chief stared at them (at least, she thought he did) as they entered the airlock, but apparently decided not to say anything, simply hefting a scoped rifle he'd picked up, ready for a fight as the airlocks cycled. Instead he handed them earpieces so they could stay in contact, though how they were supposed to work while in vacuum she had no idea. Lara then felt a thrill of terror as the air left the airlock, part of her saying she was going to die horrible due to being exposed to the vacuum of space.
"The auxiliary launch station should be to your left out of the airlocks." Cortana said, showing that somehow the earpieces still worked. Then the man paused in his step as something happened, Cortana's voice coming out garbled and sounding frayed. "You'll have to prime the launch for ignition."
"Cortana!?" He asked, concern in his voice as Lara and the others glanced at each other.
"It's nothing." She said, still sounding garbled and staticy. "Just get to the launch station."
Before anything else could be said, the outer airlock door opened and Lara drew in a deep breath despite knowing that all the air had already left the airlock.
"Um, I'm sorry, did I miss orbiting a Forerunner planet at some point?" Cortana asked, sounding normal now. Lara looked up to see what she was talking about only to see that the entire planet they were orbiting seemed to be made entirely of metal, her breath catching in her throat.
"Holy shit…" Beast Boy said softly, staring at the mass of metal filling their view.
"One thing at a time." The Chief said, bringing his rifle up and beginning to fire at aliens disembarking from troop transports. Lara and Harry quickly did the same, taking several of the enemy out.
They fought their way across the hull towards the launch station, Beast Boy and Alice taking care of anybody that got too close. However, they were getting bogged down by the sheer amount of enemies wandering along the hull. "Chief, you need to get to the launch station!" Cortana said urgently.
The Chief increased his pace while being careful to maintain his firing discipline.
Finally, they reached the launch station and the Chief began tapping on the screen. "Launch initiated!" Cortana called, some small triumph in her voice as they watched as a missile tube opened and the long cylindrical weapon emerged. However, it suddenly stopped, something catching on it. "Oh great, the blast door's jammed!" Cortana said in aggravation. "The missile won't fire until it's cleared!"
"I'll get it!" Beast Boy called as he jumped down, quickly shifting his form into a dog and beginning to make his way to the missile tube, only to stop and scramble for cover as two new troop transports lowered themselves to disgorge more enemies. The others quickly jumped down to assist him, the low gravity being generated by the hull of the ship making their landing smooth and painless. Then they began to fight in earnest.
They fought their way to the tube. Lara had a close call when one of the tall aliens attacked her with what looked like an energy sword. She managed to dodge as Harry fired an energy bullet into the things brain, killing it and letting it float away.
Beast Boy managed to reach the blast door and began pushing it while the others covered him, shifting his form into a gorilla for strength. He finally managed to get it into place after some struggling, the missile beginning to leave the tube, firing itself at the large ship they could all see in front of them. It slammed into the ship, breaking it into pieces with an explosion. Beast Boy shifted back to human form and cheered.
Their celebration was short lived however. The orange light that had been sweeping the ship before radiated from the planet in a tight beam that landed on the Chief, covering his form. "Chief?" Cortana exclaimed with concern as the light disappeared.
"The Covenant weren't the ones scanning us…" The Chief said before stopping as the planet before them began to… open up. Enormous metal plates the size of countries parted, a bright white light emanating from the interior, almost blinding them. Then it began to suck things into it.
"So, now can we worry about the giant metal planet?" Cortana asked. They watched as the light continued dragging more things in. "It's using a gravity well to pull things inside the surface!" She exclaimed. "Everyone, get inside to the escape pods!" Everybody turned and ran, following the Chief, trusting him to know where to go. "We've got to hurry. Once we cross the dome's event horizon, its atmosphere is going to tear us apart!"
"Where are the closes escape pods." Chief asked.
"Aft vehicle bay." Cortana responded.
"Will the pods survive atmospheric entry!?" Harry asked as he ran.
"They will." Chief said confidently.
They quickly entered the airlock that the Chief had guided them to, waiting anxiously for the re-pressurization to finish. They ran when the doors opened, and Lara's heart was hammering in her chest. They flew through the ship as it broke apart, ignoring any aliens in the way, focused entirely on making it to the escape pods.
An explosion almost took out Alice, but Harry managed to pull her away in time, and the floor gave out from under Beast Boy's feet at one point, but he turned into a bird and gave himself enough airtime to avoid dropping to the burning floor below.
"Just through that door!" Cortana shouted as they approached a set of double doors after almost being crushed by some cars in the vehicle bay. The Chief was about to open them when they were ripped out of their frames, a gash in the far wall ripping open into a gaping hole that took what looked like the scape pods with it. The group screamed as they were almost sucked out into space, barely managing to catch themselves on various things.
It wouldn't last long, however. Everything was giving way due to the pressure of the gravity well, and before long the Chief lost his grip and went flying out. Lara whimpered as she used all her strength to keep hold of the remains of the railing she was clutching, but it wasn't enough, and soon she went flying out with a scream.
Her scream was cut short as she slammed into some debris, the air being driven out of her lungs. Thankfully it didn't seem like anything was broken, the protective aura Harry had put on her doing much more than she expected. But she was falling towards the planet, and she knew she was going to die.
She began to cry. Normally she'd be able to grit her teeth and force herself through whatever crisis she was in, but right now, there was simply nothing she could do to avert her end. She thought of Sam, alone and waiting for her to return. The thought made her whimper.
Suddenly she felt a strong arm around her waist and turned to see Harry clutching her tight, Beast Boy and Alice clutching onto his other arm. His eyes were exuding darkness, and he said something she couldn't catch before an orb of darkness formed around the group, obscuring the blinding light they were falling towards.
He looked at her, and smiled. "It'll be okay."
And, somehow, she believed him.
Yay, managed to get a chapter out when I meant to! Woot!
So, as you can tell, we're in the Halo-verse, during the events of Halo 4. I know that isn't a popular decision. A lot of people wanted Halo 2 so they could deal with the Flood. However, long term, Halo 4 serves my purposes better. It gives me the opportunity to implement something that will be very useful going forward.
I've mentioned many times that this section of the fic is going to piss some people off. That's because I plan on introducing mystical elements into the Halo universe. I don't mean putting Harry in there and letting him do his thing, that's obvious. I mean something that will be native to this version of the Halo-verse, just unknown till I introduce it. I tried finding another way of getting what I want to do done, but this just makes the most sense, story wise. I hope you're willing to stick with it anyway.
Our time in this universe isn't planned to be long, though we all know what happens to plans. I've never played Guardians, as I don't have an XBone, so nothing from that will really be implemented, though I've been checking the wiki in case there's anything of use. Not really interested now that I have, though. Making Cortana evil, just… no. Though the actress does play Salem on RWBY…
Oh, right, one thing some people complained about from the previous chapter is that the Lance broke too easily. They think that as an object of power, it should be impossible to damage. Uh… no. That's not how things work. Hell, the Divine Source in Rise of the Tomb Raider was destroyed by throwing it on the floor.
Powerful objects being impossible to destroy except by special means has been a trope since Tolkien's Ring, and so everybody just assumes that's how it's supposed to be. But, people, glass cannons are a thing. Yes, I admit that the lance being struck by a bullet at that exact moment is a bit contrived, but so is a lot of fiction. The idea that the lance is bulletproof has no real rational basis, beyond maybe the fact that it was supposed to belong to a god. But even divine weapons can break. That's been shown in mythology.
Anyway, to those interested, my Zelda fic is up. I know it isn't a hugely popular fandom anymore, but I hope It entertains. Leave me a review telling me what you think of it.
I… think that's it. Let me know what you thought of the chapter with a review. I'm hoping to get to 600 soon. We'll see. Till next time. Bye.